Picks and Pans Review: The World of James Joyce
updated 06/20/1983 AT 01:00 AM EDT
•originally published 06/20/1983 AT 01:00 AM EDT
Twentieth-century literature without James Joyce would be like physics without Albert Einstein—or so maintains commentator Peter O'Toole in this documentary about the life and work of the author of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. The program offers an insightful portrait of the artist as a young rebel and lifelong exile from Ireland. Regrettably, it eventually turns tedious. The producers would have done better by including more examples of Joyce's genius and fewer minor biographical details.